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Thursday, November 4, 2010

If you are reading this sentence after reading the title of this post, then you must be a true fan of my blog and I thank you. I've never made the claim that I would ever stay up-to-date with any food news, and this time around proves to be no exception.

Part one of the news is that one of Cherry Creek's last fun, semi-ethnic(y) and questionably diverse restaurants has officially closed. I am, of course, referring to Tambien, which has locked its basement-level doors for good and put all of its Mexican-like energy into the mega-eatery El Diablo, which I just reviewed a few weeks ago.

In my original post on Tambien I mourned the loss of economic, cultural and food-related diversity in Cherry Creek and unfortunately the trend continues. Hopefully after the diversity-wrecking ball of homogeneity strikes Tambien they will at least spare this fantastic stained glass masterpiece.

Much more tragic in my little food world is the sudden disappearance of Tacos el Gordo in Globeville. I was alerted to this tragedy back in September, but just managed to make my way over the other day. It was a little hard to tell from the outside, as El Gordo has always been fortified like a bomb shelter--replete with metal screens and a thick iron front door-- but the foreboding metal entryway was locked, and a small "For Rent" sign was hanging lamely over the entrance.

If you read this blog way back in May, then you know I was elated to run across el Gordo, when it was a mere five months old. Despite its young age, it even made it onto my Taco al Pastor list as having one of the best tacos al pastor sliced from a spit in Denver. Sadly, my already short list of Denver's finest taquerias serving spit-roasted pork just got shorter. I am only glad that I was able to sample the fruits of El Gordo's labor for as long as I did. Like the butterfly--or the desert rose--El Gordo was beautiful, but transient. But maybe like the delicate migratory songbird, El Gordo will return next spring and play his siren song to me. Somehow I doubt it, but if he does I will let you know.

But not all is lost. The same person that alerted me to the closure of El Gordo pointed out that down the street on the corner of Washington and 45th is Diamante Negro, who did have an empty spit sitting out in their parking lot when I passed by the other night. I went in and found that they were planning to fill it with stacked pork later that night as part of their "Noche Romantica". And although that is exactly what I think of when I think of romance, my wife had other plans for us, so I will be back hopefully soon for some late-night romance-- that is, eating tacos al pastor.